Israeli elections

Yair Golan in Tel Aviv on Feb. 2, 2025.

Interview

Amid Israel's rightward shift, left struggles for relevance

In a special interview with Al-Monitor, Yair Golan, leader of center-left party the Democrats, insists that the Palestinian Authority must play a pivotal role in the future administration of Gaza.

Yair Golan

Yair Golan

Chair of the Democrats Party

Israeli soldier and kids use binoculars during a Sukkoth gathering, calling for resettling Gaza with Jewish communities near the border with the Gaza Strip on Oct. 21, 2024 in Southern Border, Israel.

Why Israel's far right is embracing Trump’s Gaza displacement plan

Israel's far right is elated by President Donald Trump's calls to drive Gazans away from the Strip and resettle them in other Arab states.

SAEED JARAS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Netanyahu teeters between Trump’s demand to end war, coalition threats

The Israeli right says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu caved to Hamas by allowing hundreds of thousands of Gazans to return to the north.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 28: U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in a joint statement in the East Room of the White House on January 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. The news conference was held to announce the Trump administration's plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

Analysis

Netanyahu goes all in on Trump: Accepts Gaza deal, shifts to Saudi Arabia and Iran

Netanyahu did everything within his power to delay the deal in the months leading up to the US presidential elections. Diplomatic sources say the Israeli premier was eager to hand Donald Trump credit for the ceasefire.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Latest News

Analysis

Why is Sara Netanyahu still in Miami as Israel PM faces health, other crises?

Sara Netanyahu arrives for her husband Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint meeting of Congress at the US Capitol on July 24, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

Analysis

Could Trump intervene against ICC arrest warrants to help Netanyahu?

US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu(R) at the White House, Washington, DC, Sept. 15, 2020.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Analysis

Gaza and Lebanon for Iran: Inside Netanyahu’s gamble on Donald Trump

AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Analysis

Beyond Jerusalem, what's behind Israeli embrace of Donald Trump?

Large billboards bearing the flags of the US and Israel with a message in support of US presidential candidate Donald Trump, hang against buildings in Tel Aviv on October 30, 2024. An opinion poll conducted in September by Mitvim, the Israel Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, said 68 percent of Israelis see Trump as the candidate who will best serve Israel's interests. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

Israeli army tanks are deployed in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, Sept. 29, 2024.

Analysis

Israel buoyant after killing Nasrallah, mulls risky Lebanon ground invasion

After the killing of the Hezbollah chief, Israeli security chiefs disagree on a potential ground incursion into southern Lebanon.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant meets soldiers on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, Sderot, Israel, Oct. 19, 2023.

Analysis

Can Netanyahu both fire Gallant and go to war in Lebanon?

The Biden administration clearly finds it hard to believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will go through with firing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant while warning that war with Hezbollah could break out soon.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Israeli border guards stand alert as anti-government demonstrators rally with national and pride rainbow flags at Ben Gurion Airport, near Lod, during a protest hours after parliament adopted a key clause of the government's judicial overhaul package at the first reading, July 11, 2023.

Analysis

How far will Israel's justice minister go in reviving polarizing judicial overhaul?

Justice Minister Yariv Levin is gearing up for another attempt to legislate the government's controversial judicial overhaul plan suspended after the Oct. 7 attack.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

Yahya al-Sinwar (C), Gaza Strip chief of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, waves to supporters during a rally marking the 35th anniversary of the group's foundation, in Gaza City on December 14, 2022. Hamas will end talks on securing a prisoner exchange with Israel unless there is progress soon, the militant group's leader in the Gaza Strip said on December 14. Since Israel's 2014 invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group has held the bodies of Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, altho

Analysis

As Netanyahu hedges, Hamas' Sinwar undecided between deal or regional war

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived closer to the moment of truth where he must decide for or against a deal for the release of the hostages held by Hamas and a cease-fire in Gaza.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron (L) after a joint press conference in Jerusalem, Oct. 24, 2023.

Analysis

Israeli minister's support for Le Pen causing tensions in France-Israel ties

Reports that French President Emmanuel Macron confronted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about statements championing the far-right's Marine Le Pen signal the dangers of the Israeli government siding with European populists.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Israeli anti-government protesters prepare to release yellow balloons during a demonstration demanding action to release the hostages taken captive by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip in the Oct. 7 attacks, central Tel Aviv, July 6, 2024.

Analysis

Why is Israel's anti-government protest movement struggling to gain steam?

Hundreds of thousands of people come out to support the families of the hostages in their call for a deal to release them, but fewer join rallies calling for the Netanyahu government to resign over the failures of Oct. 7.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Egypt enraged by Netanyahu's demands as talks stall, Israel-Cairo ties tumble

The list of non-negotiable demands Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued ahead of talks for a hostage release deal are likely to not only sabotage negotiations, but also harm Israel’s relations with Egypt.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

A view of Beita town with smoke from the teargas cannister fired by Israeli soldiers during an intervention in the clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers who stormed the top of Mount Al-Arma in Beita town, south of Nablus on Friday, May 03, 2024. The tensions have been rising in the areas of West Bank between the Palestinians and Israelis since October 07, and often the Israeli police intervene by firing teargas, and sending armed forces to disperse the Palestinians gathered to confront the Israe

US slams Israel's 5,300 new settlement units, Biden 'likely' to meet Netanyahu

President Joe Biden is reportedly likely to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the latter travels to Washington late July to address Congress.

Israeli police disperse Ultra-Orthodox Jews blocking a highway during a protest against possible changes regarding the laws on the military draft from which the Ultra-Orthodox community has traditionally been exempt, in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak, on June 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

What Israel's Supreme Court ruling to draft ultra-Orthodox means for Netanyahu

Israel's Supreme Court ruled unanimously that there is no justification for the state to exempt young ultra-Orthodox men from military service.

SOUTHERN ISRAEL, ISRAEL - JUNE 17: An Israeli tank moves along the border with the Gaza Strip as seen from a position on the Israeli side of the border on June 17, 2024 in Southern Israel, Israel. Israeli Army have agreed to a daily tactical pause in South Gaza to allow the passage of Humanitarian aid across the border. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

Analysis

Netanyahu on collision course with Israeli military over next steps in Gaza

Over the past weekend, 11 Israeli soldiers died in Hamas booby traps, despite the sense among the country's top brass that the job in the Gaza Strip is done.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images

Israel’s Netanyahu dissolves war cabinet as Rafah fighting subsides

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he was dissolving the war cabinet, but will reportedly continue consulting its members on sensitive decisions.

Cars drive past a billboard bearing an inscription in Hebrew which reads 'think well of who benefits from our division - unity now', with a portrait of the head of the political wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, in Tel Aviv on April 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Palestinian territory. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

As Hamas, Netanyahu 'accept' US plan, Sinwar 'riding high,' far from surrender

Israel’s updated assessments point to the fact that Hamas is far from surrendering and that the group’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar and his surviving leadership partners are convinced time is on their side.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense